Bosetti pitches to MLS

I had the opportunity to listen to Rick Bosetti talk about some current affairs (no pun intended) with the COR at the Shasta Board of Realtors meeting this morning. Something that will eventually be a MAJOR issue for the City is the fact that in 1998, the COR's obligation to CalPERS was approximately 3.8 millions dollars. At that time, the city manager brought negotiations with the the various unions in house, as opposed to paying a professional to negotiate on the city's behalf. In 2008, COR obligations to CalPERS was closer to 19 million dollars. 10 years later and our obligations to city retirees has increase almost 5 times. Oh, and remember that the stock market is now at 1997 levels? So retirees are guarenteed a 6% return from CalPERS, and if that 6% doesn't come from stock market returns, they come out of the contributors pocket.....that's you and I as taxpayers in COR.

The City recently was negotiating with the police union on concessions in order to keep from laying off police officers, similar to what was done in LA. Do you know what the police union said? Basically said that the contract allows for the city to lay off police officers so go ahead and lay them off. They were not willing to take any cuts in pay, benefits, etc in order to keep their own. I don't know if this was an attempt to show the city doesn't regard police as a high priority, or senior members of the police union watching out for their own pocket book, or exactly why the union chose that route, but it did. Amazing.

City reserves are down from about 12 million last year to 5.8 million this year. Tax revenues are down 8.5% this quarter. Obama's economic stimulus money will be limited. It certainly wasn't a rosey picture of the current situation down there at 777 Cypress, but as we all know, situations change.

On the lighter side though, someone asked Rick if he missed Ken Murray on the council. Rick's response, "Our meetings are shorter."